|| we like our "likes" ||

I have an iPhone.
I have email.
I have Facebook.
I have Twitter.
I have Instagram.
I have Snapchat.
I have Vine.
I have Pinterest.
I have Spotify.

Gosh darn it.  I have so many forms of social media which requires enough technology, gizmos, and gadgets that if I was smart enough, I could probably send myself to the moon and back.

And I am SO guilty of LOVING it.

I LOVE social media!

I can keep up with family, friends -from high school and college- and even more importantly, I can follow all of these people in the world that I don't actually know but are so hilarious I can't help but watch all their videos.

But here's what I do know.

I know that social media doesn't define me.

The last profile picture that I had is with a turtle I found.  Those twenty "likes" I got on it don't make me a cool or uncool person.  The album I just made on Facebook with my vacation photos, where I conveniently only posted the photos in which I looked good in, doesn't mean that I look that great every day of my life - just ask my roommates about my morning hair or my classmates about the seven pairs of sweat pants I rotate between!!!  The picture on Instagram that I shared of my family laughing joyfully (it got 54 likes but whose counting...) doesn't mean that we never have our fights.  That tweet where I quoted my dad saying something funny, doesn't in fact make him funny, although, I will admit he has gotten funnier as I have gotten older (Love you, Dad!).

So often, I see people posting their beach body pics and without meaning to, I begin to say to myself, "I think I am a polar bear and they are Queen Elsa" and my self-esteem is helped IMMENSELY by their 647 likes to my 12 likes and comment by my mom, grandma, and great-aunt's twice removed husband's dead goldfish.  I would love it if someone explained to me why my picture I posted of my caramel roll got more likes than the Bible verses I quoted about not loving the worlds ways.  Are caramel rolls really that much less convicting?


Many of my favorite pictures have not received more than twenty likes, which says either a lot about my captions or the 333 followers of mine - and NO, I don't know how many people follow me off the top of my head; I just went and looked it up!

The picture I posted of one of my best friends getting engaged.  The "typical white girl post" of me and someone I never thought I would be friends with on a Caribou date.  The photo I posted of my parents in their college days for their anniversary. My teammates and I in our throwback jerseys, me snuggling with a cute puppy, or the picture of me holding my youth pastors newborn baby ... ALL of these photos and SO many more had VALUE before I EVER posted them on ANY of my social media.  And for myself personally - I have VALUE whether I post things or not on social media, and so does everyone else in this world.

I am not going to stop posting my pictures or writing down my favorite quotes for people to see, as cheesy as they may be.  I will probably show my followers some more of my meals, especially if I gain cooking skills in the next couple years and I make something that actually looks edible.  I may even screen shot snapchats from my best friends to someday use as birthday posts.  And I will certainly continue to quote my family because they are in fact the most hilarious people I know, but I'm not going to let my identity be defined by the "likes," "favorites," and "comments" that will eventually fade away.

My worth is in something far more everlasting then MySpace - because who actually has that anymore?





-Courage, dear hearts. C.S. Lewis.
Lexi


Genesis 1:27
"So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them."

Luke 12:24
"Consider the ravens: They do not sow or rep, they have no storeroom or barn; yet God feeds them.  And how much more valuable you are than birds!"

{ the truth about coffee }

Here's the truth about coffee.

I didn't really become addicted to coffee until college.  I feel like that's a very cliche statement right there.  Well, let me speak to all those not yet in college: college changes you.  One of my changes, is that I drink a ton of coffee.  So much, in fact that sometimes I think I give coffee the jitters!!!

So those of you not in college, or maybe you are in college, but you just haven't gotten on the coffee train yet, I want to give you a little heads up.



1. Don't drink three cups of coffee without food in your stomach.  Don't believe me?  Well, I still don't recommend you try it.

2. Learn to make your own coffee.  It is a phenomenal life skill and you will thank me later!

3. Buy a proper travel mug.  Not a cheap one that doesn't cover the little lip part you drink out of because guarantee there will be a day you are rushing to class and it will pleasantly splash hot happiness ALL OVER YOU AND THE PAPER YOU ARE ABOUT TO TURN IN!

4. Find a go-to drink.  It's just a must.  There is gonna be a day where you are having a meltdown because you have a ten page paper due in less than ten hours and you haven't started yet plus you are studying for a science test that is worth about 100% of grade and it's important that you do well since you're a bio-kinetics physics chemistry pre-med quadruple major ... DO NOT PANIC! If you are need of a go-to drink - I recommend to try either an iced white chocolate latte or campfire mocha blended from Caribou - two really solid choices there!

*SIDE NOTE: Coffee is a great drink in general even if you're not having a meltdown, in case you were wondering; so many ways to drink it - iced, blended, black, creamer, more chocolate, maybe even some caramel, and you have so many places to get it!  You can make your own (my personal favorite is Archer Farms light roast coffee Dark Chocolate Truffle; not gonna lie, it's a little more money then I'd like it to be but a girl's gotta splurge on something, right?), there's a Caribou Coffee on every dang street corner in Minneapolis, every five blocks there's a Starbucks and if you haven't had one of their chocolate banana smoothies .... well you just really should, and you have other shops such as Spyhouse, Dunn Bros,  J. Arthurs, and so many more.

5. Let's be honest, at the very least, order a couple coffee's in your life time so you can have some artsy Instagram photos - make sure you put some really cute caption with it or if you want to be really mysterious, don't use words but maybe throw in an emoji.

The truth is, coffee is everywhere and it appears to be something that's going to be attracting people for quite awhile!


BONUS:
Two great articles about coffee!!!
Celebrate National Coffee Day
Coffee Dates with all my Facebook Friends

-Courage, dear heart. C.S. Lewis

Lexi

Why I play Basketball.

I was recently telling someone about my life at college.  They were asking about classes, my job, how I balanced having a social life, and basketball.  Towards the end of the conversation, they asked me, "Has it ever felt like too much?  Have you ever thought of quitting basketball?"

I would like to say I answered with something along the lines of, "No way, it's always been a dream ride ..." and yada yada yada ... but that's not the truth.

The truth is that basketball has been hard.  Nothing worth doing is ever easy.  It's never been easy to give up my weekends with friends to go to a tournament.  It's never been easy to get up at 6 am to go lifting.  It's never been easy to deal with injuries, go through physical therapy, and try and come back into your season as soon as possible.  It's never been easy to go after goals, win games, and/or make it to playoffs, the state tournament, or national tournament.  It's not easy now to tell my siblings that I won't be able to watch their state cross country meet because I have practice.  It's not easy to remind my family that I will only have a week of Christmas break.  It's never been easy.  It won't ever be easy.

But I'm not going to quit.

This question actually gave me a lot of good reason to reflect on why I play basketball.  I thought about my time as a youth when I started playing on a traveling team in 5th grade; how those girls were teammates who I played with for the next eight years until we were seniors in high school.  I thought about how I knew exactly what their strengths were, I knew the move they would make on the basketball court before they would even make it, and how I knew more about them than just their plays on the court.  I knew their families - parents, siblings, and grandparents.  I knew where each of them lived and could drive to their houses in my sleep.

I thought about my time playing on an AAU (Amateur Athletic Union) team; how almost every year it was a completely new team.  I thought about the first time I ever played against a girl over 6 feet tall when I was in 8th grade and how that was slightly intimidating.  I thought about all of the overnight weekend trips I took with my family and how incredibly bonding that was for the six of us.  I thought about the teammates who I am still in contact with and how I still play against many of them at the college level.

I thought about my time now as a college basketball player; how I never even heard of many of my teammates and now consider them some of my closest friends.  I thought back to my freshman year of college and how I had coaches that reached out to me and several upperclassmen who went out of their way to make sure that I was surviving life as a college student-athlete.  I thought about my second season as a sophomore and how more than anything, I wanted my teammates to know they were incredibly loved by me and their Savior.

Which brought me to my conclusion of why I play basketball.  Basketball isn't always about playing basketball anymore.

It's a great game - don't get me wrong.  For anyone who is interested in Strength's Finder, you should know that my number one strength is Competition.  I think my strength as a competitor far outweighs my other strengths.

Example A:  I hate losing; to the point where I don't even have to watch game film because I know exactly which play is going to happen and I can replay the entire game in my mind; to the point where sometimes I lose sleep over it; to the point where this is probably making me sound insane.

But basketball isn't always about playing basketball.  For me, basketball is about a form of worship - that in everything I do, on and off the court, I am representing Jesus Christ.  That's not easy either.  It's not easy when the other team says something really offense to your teammates or when the ref makes a bad call, because lets be honest, it happens at least once a game!  (Being even more real, I know that I am going to screw it up sometimes)  However, every time I step on that court and remind myself that I am playing for a greater purpose then just the game of basketball, my perspective and my purpose changes.

It's kind of like that quote by C.S. Lewis (and by the way, if he was still alive, he would be my friend crush!).

"I pray because I can’t help myself. I pray because I’m helpless. I pray because the need flows out of me all the time, waking and sleeping. It doesn’t change God, it changes me." -CS Lewis

I play basketball with a different perspective not because it changes our win-loss record or what the refs think about the call they just made, but because it changes how I play because of the need I feel to honor Christ, not out of obligation but because I love him as well.  And in the end, that is why I play basketball.  

-Courage, dear heart. C.S. Lewis

Lexi

My Top 5 Places I want to travel next

Fairly simple (as was my post from last week).

What are my Top 5 Places that I want to travel someday soon (in no particular order, FYI)?

1.

Colorado Springs, Colorado

Or just anywhere in Colorado for that matter! I have never been to Colorado

and lately have been experiencing an extreme desire to go on a adventure,

spend time in the mountains, go hiking and white water rafting! Going to the

state of Colorado is also on my one-year bucket list so it needs to happen 

before July 12, 2015!

2.

Paris, France

I just feel like Paris is one of those places you have to visit in your life

time! I really want to see the Eiffel Tower (probably take a shameless selfie)

and I'm a sucker for romance so obviously I want to see and put a lock on 

the Love-Lock Bridge.

3.

Sydney, Australia

My parents went to Sydney was I was very young and even now I 

look at all of their pictures and desire to go back (they got to hold a 

wombat!).  The Sydney Opera House and Sydney Harbour Bridge are 

two of the things I really want to see when I go as well!

4.

Machu Picchu in Peru

I get goosebumps whenever I think of this place - don't know why

but there is something so mysterious and magical about this place that

makes me want to go and stand in awe of the ruins!

5.
The Hawaiian Islands
I'm going to be honest, I don't really care which one, I just wanna be
laying on the beach, especially right now since I am already curling
up in blankets, sweats, and my wool socks as winter appears to be right
around the corner!

-Courage, dear heart. C.S. Lewis

Lexi